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#player1 whatnoloan whatnoloan
#player2 Nigel Nigel
>whatnoloan: BEEEOUU -BEEOUU +0 0
>Nigel: AIMPRTX 8G MATRIX +46 46
#note Racks from Nigel.
>whatnoloan: AEFINQR J4 FAQI. +37 37
>Nigel: ACFINPT K7 F.CIN +25 71
#note FANFIC is a pretty sweet option that's available here.
>whatnoloan: BBENRSY 5I B.BY +22 59
#note I thought about RIBBY to block Nigel's scoring spot and keep the FICINS line open. I wasn't sure enough of RIBBY to do this though, and this seemed too similar. This is fine.
>Nigel: AAPSSTW J10 PAW +26 97
#note How about just WASPY.
>whatnoloan: AEEENRS L4 E.E +12 71
>Nigel: AEIPSST 13G PETSAIS +85 182
>whatnoloan: ADENRRS H10 END.AR +27 98
#note PETSAIS/PATSIES really puts me in a bind here. I thought about DEAR but didn't see ENRS as very good here. I didn't like blocking row 9 but it didn't seem especially strong anyway. No matter what I do I end up on a board with little bingo potential and few scoring spots, which is perfect for Nigel. Due to the shape of PETSAIS, I don't think I can find a play that doesn't do this.
>Nigel: AACEENO 11E AEO. +8 190
#note There are quite a few options here. OCEA(N), AEO(N), CA(M)EO, AEON 12L, and AEC(I)A are all worth considering here. I think Nigel did a good thing here by opening more scoring spots and blocking a couple of lanes, because that's exactly how he's going to keep or even extend his lead. AECIA is a nice score but it doesn't do what AEON does. The other AEON is like AECIA but also opens a 3x3 which I'm not a fan of with this score and pool. CAMEO doesn't open as much for scoring. I think he should do OCEAN here because it scores more than AEON and opens better potential for scoring.
>whatnoloan: DDGRRSY 9E DRY +22 120
>Nigel: ACEGINU E3 UNCAGE. +22 212
>whatnoloan: DGHIORS 12L HOG +26 146
>Nigel: AILNTUV N5 VAULTIN. +66 278
>whatnoloan: DEHIRST 15H .EDSHIRT +98 244
>Nigel: ?EORSWZ F6 WO +29 307
>whatnoloan: DIJLTUU M2 JUT +22 266
#note Geez, this play was really difficult. I thought about exchanging but it didn't look appropriate because I should keep within a bingo here. I thought about JU(N) and both placements of JUT. JUT 12C looks bad because it prematurely blocks lanes opened by plays on row 8. JU(N) also did this. It seemed hard to open up lanes on the top of the board so M2 JUT didn't seem so bad. There really are no good options here...is this the best of a bad lot?
>Nigel: ?AEORSZ 8A fROZ. +69 376
#note The blank is really good...how about just ZOEAE?
>whatnoloan: DEILMNU A8 .ULMINED +83 349
>Nigel: AEGKORS N1 KOS +34 410
>whatnoloan: ?EIILNO 1N .I +18 367
#note It was cool to have this as the last difficult play of the tournament, because it was an interesting situation to think about. What I'm doing here is hoping that Nigel can't block all of my available lanes (which is reasonably likely) and that I will draw a bingo, most likely through the U. Here's the problem though: there are no bingos I can draw through the U. He should probably be blocking all the lanes except for through the U. I could play ELOININg and hope that he doesn't have the A. The basic question is, would he play KOS without the A? The second option is to play this and hope that his best play is to block most bingo lanes and not the O, or somehow messes up. This doesn't seem like a situation that Nigel would mess up. So I'm not sure what's correct here...both KI and ELOININg/LIONIzER look pretty poor. At least it was fun to think about!
>Nigel: AEEGORT C5 GAR.TE +9 419
>whatnoloan: ?EILNOV D1 VINO +28 395
#note We both missed (D)OOLEE. ELuVI(A) is the best block.
>Nigel: EELOO B13 OLE +15 434
#note Ole ole! What's interesting is that this game was really fun and I hated my game against Leah. In both games I felt like I was getting the worse part of the tile bag for the whole game. Yet Nigel is an opponent that I generally enjoy playing and feel is a good match for me (just look at our record). On the other hand, I get frustrated when people I feel I'm "supposed" to beat beat me. So I'm maddened when things don't go my way in these games. This should change. The fact is, there's plenty of skill involved both in games against Nigel and against Leah, and I should always focus on this interesting challenging, rather than who is "supposed" to win. People win and people lose. That's it.
#rack1 ?EL
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